The Crafting of Poetry

The Crafting of Poetry (POET) was a CTY Writing course focusing on creating poetry by looking at sample texts and creatingt their own pieces. It was only offered at Carlisle.

Course Description

From the CTY Course Catalog (2002):

From the haiku of Basho to spoken word pieces at poetry slams, poems are an important and versatile medium for creative expression. Today we find poetry not only in The New Yorker and anthologies but also at coffee shops, on subway trains, and in online journals. Whether expressing lost love or the wonders of science, the language of poetry is immediate, intense, and relevant.

In this course, student poets explore the possibilities for expression by studying the works of such writers as Keats, Dickinson, e.e. cummings, recent poet laureates Rita Dove and Robert Pinsky, and others. Examining villanelles and free verse, lyrics and odes, students gain new awareness of the flexibility of language; they identify meter, rhyme, and other poetic devices, and then experiment with these expressive elements in their own poems. In response to instructor comments and peer criticism offered during workshops, students revise these poems to produce portfolios of their creative work. Throughout, the course emphasizes poetry as both a written and a spoken art, culminating in a public poetry reading.